Going Wilde
by YumKiwiDelicious
Summary: "Nicholas Piberious Wilde being a predator and Judith Laverne Hopps being prey did unlawfully cohabitate as man and wife and thereby knowingly act against the peace and dignity of Zootopia as set by its Anti-Interspecies Marriage Law."
1. Chapter 1

Nick heaved a deep rumble of a sigh low down in his chest and Judy huffed a reply. He was curled up around his bunny, ear pressed to her chest and covering it almost completely as they lounged on the couch. Her heart thundered rapidly in her chest, but that was common for a rabbit. The sound was honestly soothing because being in the precinct most days meant he was used to being surrounded by a certain volume of clamor and his apartment had begun to seem unsettlingly quiet even with Judy having moved in. Having her heart pounding directly under his ear was like having a white noise machine humming in the background as he dozed. The ironic part was that they had agreed to cohabitate in his apartment to finally escape her noisy neighbors.

They had gotten up early like they had planned and dressed like they had planned and then instead of getting an early start on their other plans had merely drifted together softly and landed on the couch. They'd talked a bit about this and that and work and family and what time they hoped to be home, but mostly they just enjoyed each other's company. They had both called out for the day and it was a rare treat indeed to get to sit in comfort without worrying one or both of them would get called down to the station at any moment. They didn't even need to worry about their parents calling to disrupt the calm because everyone was clued in to The Plan.

Now it was just a matter of time passing.

It was hot. It was always hot; they lived in Sahara Square. Getting officer Judy Hopps to move to the sweltering desert district rather than stay nestled in the heart of her beloved City Center close to work had not been easy. But ultimately the noisy neighbors and the threat that work could literally follow them home gave her the nudge she needed. They were safe here away from prying eyes and with walls so thick even Judy's sensitive ears couldn't hear what the neighbors were up to. It was perfect for them and they had gotten used to the heat. It just meant they wore less layers inside.

At that moment Judy was clad in a thin cotton dress that had once been a much more blushing shade of pink, but had faded into pastel territory after being passed down from sister to sister to sister. No waste to be found in a bunny burrow and Judy really was fond of the sundress which was why she had chosen to wear it that day. A little piece of all the siblings that wouldn't be joining them because they had lives of their own in places even beyond Zootopia and couldn't make it on such short notice. She told herself and Nick that it would be fine, that the farm would be crowded enough already. He'd just snorted, focus laying with the tie he had been trying to knot unsuccessfully for fifteen minutes by the time Judy had made her comment about the other bunnies.

He'd eventually abandoned the tie, bemoaning the fact that an accessory he'd worn for years would choose today of all days to be so aloof, and so snuggled against Judy in just a dress shirt, the top button undone. His slacks were from work and were comfortable and versatile which was really the only requirement out of the dress code they had set for themselves. They wanted to look nice, sure, but comfort took precedence over appearance. They would be in these clothes for hours yet.

"We should buy a house."

Judy's statement, given with absolutely no preamble, merely made Nick flick up the ear that wasn't listening in on her heart. He hummed noncommittally in the back of his throat and kept his eyes peacefully closed.

"You think so?"

"Yeah," she mused, paw lifting to run across her partner's ear. He shivered under her attentions and turned his head so that his chin rested on her chest rather than his ear, muzzle pushed up under her throat. When he opened his eyes, half lidded and drowsy with her scent, she wasn't looking at him but gazing around the apartment.

It was a huge improvement from her former boarding arrangements, but still a pretty modest set up. The living room area sat nearly on top of the kitchen and doubled as the dining room area. There was only one bedroom which opened up to the one bathroom and it was lucky they were not animals of excessive fashion demands because the one closet was miniscule at best. It was honestly a shock that the couch was currently free for use since usually one or both of their duffle bags from work was thrown upon it, spilling sweats and under armour. Their dress blues hung in the closet with Nick's shirts.

Still, they made it work; eating takeout hunched over either the coffee table or the sink and sharing spaces like the bed and the shower for convenience just as much as pleasure. Neither of them had ever complained, just happy to be together, but as the bunny's purple eyes flitted over their faded walls and rusty sink and the fox thought ahead to their plans for the day he understood that it was time they began thinking of more. You couldn't play house without a house after all.

"Alright," he conceded, closing his eyes again and nipping lightly at her neck. Wonderful things happened to her scent when he did that. "Where should we buy?"

Judy Hopps hummed thoughtfully, lips pursed for show even though her partner had his eyes closed. She stroked the scruff at the back of his neck as she considered their options. Even if she were really attached to Sahara Square the district was not built with catering to homeowners in mind. It was a resort district so everything was piled in close and high to match the feel of the casinos and the Palm Hotel. Even the Canyonlands didn't have quite the spread she was thinking of.

Tundratown was out of the question as well. Neither she nor Nick were built to live in such weather conditions and it was really more a large mammal's district anyway. She quickly dismissed the Marshlands and Outback Island for similar reasons and contemplated life in a tree for only a few minutes before deciding the Rainforest district was not for them. She supposed they could always return downtown and live in Savanna Central, but that seemed to be asking for trouble. She sighed, not unhappily, hugging her partner's head and rubbing her chin over his brow.

"I don't know," she mumbled, releasing him as he moved to sit up. They had to get ready to head out. "Maybe not a house, but definitely a bigger apartment."

"No, no," Nick waved her off, helping her up from the couch and smoothing her dress down over her thighs for her, "You want a house, you'll get a house. Even if I have to build it myself."

Judy smirked at her dumb fox but nodded her assent as she reached up to smooth his shirt collar down. She could feel heat flood her ears at how handsome he looked and knew he could tell she was affected by the way he smiled over his sharp teeth. She aimed a soft smack to his muzzle, stepping back so he could assess her.

"Don't get any ideas, Slick," she warned, turning slowly so that he could catch every angle of her outfit. When he had confirmed she was perfect she grabbed both their badges, wallets, and his keys, and shoved them into her small purse that had been slumping on the coffee table waiting all morning to be used. "We've got to meet your mom at the train station, we can't be late."

"Yes, ma'am."

They shared a few more tender moments before they left the apartment. A few kisses, but mostly thoughtless touches as they navigated within the comfort of privacy. Nick's paw on her lower back as Judy insisted they didn't need to bring an overnight bag. Judy grasping his shoulder so he would bend and allow her to talk directly into his ear and remind him to close the bedroom window. Small, familiar touches that made their arrangement as clear as the noses on their faces. Intimate interactions that were strictly prohibited outside their four walls and so were treasured even if they didn't linger.

Once they were in the hall, one lamp left on inside so they wouldn't bump into things at their late return, and Nick had locked the door behind them it was business as usual. Work Nick and Judy emerged with a space wide enough between them to let propriety snuggle in. They talked briskly back and forth about work related things, letting animals skitter passed between them when they made it out onto the street. Out here Nick kept his paws buried deep within his pockets and Judy spoke louder so her voice could reach him up high. They didn't touch out here.

The walk to the station was a daily exercise in control for both of them and they had actually gotten quite good at pretending to be just work colleagues when they were out and about. Anyone on the street could easily mistake them for strangers just so happening upon the same path. Judy considered it a terrible shame.

When they reached the station and met up with Mrs. Wilde some of the pretense was able to be dropped. It wasn't unusual for a bunny to snuggle up under the arm of a fox if that fox was a kind, motherly type. Mothers didn't have a species; they coddled everyone. Mrs. Wilde was very fond of Judith and showed it through her enthusiastic greeting of the young hare, pulling her into a fierce hug, her narrow snout nestled between the female's tall ears. The two exchanged pleasantries and Nick joined the huddle to give his mother a quick hug as well. They spoke in only the most hushed whispers about The Plan for the day and when the train arrived boarded in one of the rear cars.

Mrs. Wilde sat between them, a believable barrier, and chatted politely with Judy about things old friends might chat about if they ran into each other by surprise while traveling. Her parents were fine, her siblings were many, work was rewarding, and so on and so on. Judy remembered to thank her again for the tin of cookies she had sent at Christmas time, teasingly asked if there were any handsome foxes in her life, and so on and so on. It was all very benign.

"It'll be nice to see your mother again," the older vixen enthused, tail curled politely around her legs so that no one tripped on it. Judy nodded her agreement, throwing in a playful roll of the eyes.

"Cheese and crackers, she hasn't stopped asking about you," the bunny laughed sincerely, "She was so excited to meet someone who can relate to having their child become a cop."

"It's very stressful!" Mrs. Wilde defended, emerald eyes flicking to her son for a moment as if he would have gotten up and gone on a case while she wasn't looking. Judy laughed again and conceded that, yes, it must be and so on and so on.

Nick kept one ear turned to them, but spent the first half of the ride simply gazing out the window as city life started to disappear behind them. The 211 mile journey to Bunnyburrow always went painfully slow for him because it was usually 211 miles where he had to act as if he barely knew Judy. After the first few stops in the voyage it was safer to keep up the facade than to relax and throw an arm around her petite shoulders and let his head lean down onto hers as he grew bored with the quiet.

Three hours felt like three years.

When they reached their destination Judy's parents were waiting and greeted her and the foxes with all the polite pretense of folks that had just happened across you in a train station while grabbing their daughter and wouldn't you love to drop by for a bite? Out here, in the country, Nicholas Piberius Wilde didn't even look at Judith Laverne Hopps. They were two reluctant passengers on the ride of their parents' niceties and they didn't speak or share glances or touch or even really acknowledge each other. Dragging along behind the older members of their group, Nick and Judy were less than strangers.

The cab of Stu's truck offered no relief from this charade, half made of glass as it was. Their odd ensemble piled into it and the radio was on to a level that nixed the option for conversation before they even pulled out of the station parking lot. Onto the road they went, loudly yet silently, three bunnies and two foxes on a mission. It was 20 minutes to Judy's childhood home and each passenger of the beat up old truck spent it in quiet contemplation of what was to come. When the scenery outside started to show nothing but groves and fields as far as the eye could see, Judy risked reaching her paw out for Nick's in the backseat and they watched the miles drive by together.

At the burrow everything was a flurry of movement as soon as they arrived. A team of Judy's brothers carted Nick away while his mother remained anchored to Bonnie who orchestrated all goings ons with the air of a hare who'd seen it all before. Stu mumbled and bumbled his way to the kitchen area stating he needed a stiff drink before he could squeeze his way into his tux and Judy allowed him that reprieve. Her sisters were with her then, admiring the dress as if they hadn't all seen and wore it before and adorning her with far too many things old and borrowed because new and blue just really wasn't their family's style.

The few non-family members that had been invited hovered on the edge of oblivion, Gideon Grey himself aiming a shy wave at Judith when she passed.

It wasn't too long before the time had come and suddenly all movement was swept away in a wave of forced calm. Judy had had a bushel of flowers shoved into her hands at some point to match the ones that had been woven between her ears and as she gazed down at them she could see the way her short breaths made the petals ebb and flow. She and her sisters were in the entrance hall; music had started to play. The plan was well underway.

Maybe her older sisters talked to her then. Maybe they just let her be. She wouldn't remember. All she would remember was her father taking her arm, now dressed to the nines in his old tux, when her brother, Jason, finally pulled their front door open before her revealing a site that had not been there what felt like only moments ago.

Their humble driveway had been cleared and chairs brought in to seat the abundance of bunnies, and a few other mammals, that had attended. Stu's truck was off in the distance, headlights on and aimed at the walkway Bonnie had created of chairs and flower petals leading up and up to Nick at the end. Nick in his dress shirt and work pants who had his paws folded before him and his eyes aimed somewhere towards the top of the house, not yet daring to look at his bride who was following behind a processions of some of her favorite older sisters and their husbands as she made her way too them.

Stu was already crying like a pup and Judy felt her own eyes starting to sting queerly as she was delivered into Nick's waiting paw. The fox only looked at her once he'd taken her hand and when their eyes met for the first time in hours suddenly hers were perfectly dry, her brain not allowing her to create tears at this; the happiest moment of her life. Judy stepped away from her weeping father, leaving him and everything else in the past as she took her place at Nick's side.

It had taken some doing, finding an animal discrete and forward thinking enough to marry a fox and bunny, but they had done it, and as the stone faced badger began their ceremony, both police officers took an inner moment to themselves to really realize what this all meant.

They were getting married.

In secret.

Without telling their precinct.

Outside their city.

To avoid legal ramifications.

They were breaking Zootopia law.

It was a risk they had discussed at lengths for what felt likes ages before they simple could not take it anymore. They wanted to be married and they were not going to let outdated, oppressive laws stop them. They both agreed living in secret was better than not living at all and as Nick slipped a ring onto Judy's finger that she'd never be able to wear in public after today, they tied themselves to that decision legally and spiritually.

They were married.

For better or worse.


	2. Chapter 2

"We should get a nicer frame for this."

Judy's observation was thrown absentmindedly over her shoulder in the general direction of her husband. The fox was hovering in the doorway of their bathroom, surrounded by steam, uniform still unbuttoned to his undershirt beneath as he smoothed the scruff across the back of his neck down below his collar. When he heard his wife's statement he glanced up towards her, green eyes gracing down the slopes of her figure. She was already prepared for work, having showered and dressed first like she did every morning.

Nick set his shoulder against the door jam, digging his claws deep down into his pant pockets where he stood. At this angle, in this light, with sunbeams coming in from the window and the muted bulb from the bathroom clashing from the other side, Judith Wilde seemed to glow. Her fur, soft and gray, was groomed to pretty precision and her ears sat high and proud. Her violet eyes were bright and clear as they glided over the embossed lines of their marriage certificate. She had given up wearing her dress uniform after Nick's graduation stating it made her feel stiff and immobile. Instead she daily dawned her old rookie getup of dark blue pants, a blue shirt, a kevlar vest, and black coverings around her wrists and ankles. Nick thought she looked stunning and told her as much whenever he got the chance.

They had been married just barely a month and every day the fox sent a silent thanks to any dismissive deity that may be listening that they hadn't been found out. In the illusion of safety their Sahara Square apartment afforded them, they'd lived out the husk of a honeymoon, both calling out for the reason of a shared stomach bug. They hadn't indulged for longer than the weekend after their secret nuptials before returning to work, their wedding bands tucked close to their hearts -like the secrets they were- on chains gifted from Mrs. Wilde.

"Oh yeah?"

When he'd basked in his wife's glow enough, Nick Wilde joined her in their bedroom, facing the far wall opposite the door. Their marriage certificate was framed there in all it's creamy, calligraphic glory in a humble frame that had apparently been included for the price of the document itself. On it, it stated in black and white that Judith Laverne Hopps and Nicholas Piberius Wilde had been united in the holy bonds of matrimony in the Commonwealth of Bunnyburrow on the second day in June in the year 2016. Witnessed by Bonnie Hopps and Helena Wilde. Officiated by Harold Trufflehunter. Such a small scrap of paper and yet it meant so much.

Shoved into the edge of the frame, in front of the glass, was the single photo they'd taken together that day. In it, Judy was leaned heavily into her fox, arms thrown around his middle as she beamed at her sister just beyond the camera, round cheeks flush with laughter and delight. Nick was sporting his classic smirk, but it didn't reach his eyes since those were aimed down near his chest at his young bride and full of a pure love that shown out of the glossy five-by-seven. He had a drink in his hand in the photo; carrot juice he'd been holding up to the point that his arm grew tired as Stu's tearful speech went on and on into rambling territory. In the background the silhouette of the Hopps family home was just visible beneath the twinkle lights that had been thrown up all around as the night wore on.

It was the most dazzling, damning picture there could have ever been; all the forbidden feelings between the two on full display right there in print.

"Yeah," Judy observed, leaning into Nick once he was at her side as if pulled by gravity. His arm slid around her waist. "Something fancy and ornate."

"So something gaudy?"

The bunny aimed an elbow into her partner's side, but let him steal a kiss all the same. She helped him to button his shirt not because she had to, but because she wanted to. Grabbed his tie from where she'd lain it out on the bed and looped it around his neck for another chance to run her paws over him. Readjusted his already perfect nametag to feel the thump of his heart just there beneath all the fabric and fur.

Nicholas allowed all of this for the freedom to sniff and huff at her collar, lulled into a state of droopy eyedness, lost in the heady mix of their scents there in the bedroom. When Judy finally pulled away to head towards the front of the apartment and grab their guns, the fox stayed behind to gather a few calming breaths. Eyes closed, he could hear her milling around through the wall, ears flicked up to catch her every movement. The sound of her holster snapping shut let him know it was well and truly time to go. He would dawn his kevlar at the station along with his badge. He didn't feel the need to keep those items on hand like Judy.

At the front door it was the same routine as usual; one more touch, one last kiss, an affectionate flick of the ear, one last whisper. Then they were officers Hopps and Wilde and wasn't it just so odd that they kept bumping into each other like this every morning? They descended the levels of their building through the stairwell, not willing to risk the hot confinement of the elevator lest someone come in and catch a whiff of a situation that had no business being broadcasted in the daylight.

Outside, Zootopia was fully awake and aware and would not sleepily dismiss the sight of a bunny and a fox curled in close together as a trick of the hour and so Nick and Judy took up their regular posts two feet apart and paws where anyone could see them. Judy hopped just a touch ahead of Nick with every step, dancing out of a reach he'd never attempt, while she discussed their workload for the day. Flash still hadn't given up the other members of his drag racing ring and the lack of a lead was sure to make the case drag on longer than either officer had expected. They bounced ideas back and forth and over pedestrians about where they may start, ultimately agreeing that one more shake at the usually amicable sloth wouldn't hurt.

On the train Nick stood towards the back of the car, gripping a rail and facing out a window. Animals all around him gave him a wide berth, the uniform not blinding them from their deep rooted prejudice even if they didn't outwardly notice how they shifted away, paws sliding over pockets to check that valuables were still in place. Judy sat towards the front between a friendly looking tiger mom and a pair of lemming lawyers in heavy argument over just where their client had gone wrong with his plea. No one paid her any mind. They barely seemed to recognize that a living, breathing being was sitting there at all.

This was the loneliest part of the morning for both fox and bunny.

It was during this time that they each thought about their rings, hidden away and growing hot under all the layers. Their marriage certificate and photo, displayed in a part of the apartment least likely to be seen by visitors. All the things in their life that had to remain carefully and stiflingly hidden.

Reaching Savanna Central was like stepping out of the fire and into the frying pan. Here, the married couple could know each other, but only as friends; partners. They drifted together when the train car let out, falling into step as they continued on their regular route to the department. Some days they'd stop and grab a breakfast juice from The Green Horn, catch up briefly with Cleo behind the counter who was totally loving the new management, but today they just headed into work noticing coworkers milling in from other directions who waved and called out to them.

As they reached the automatic doors to the precinct, at this point flanked by several other officers, Judy glanced at her husband with an aloof sort of smile and nodded as if just spotting him there for the first time. "Officer Wilde."

"Officer Wilde."

He left her there, flabbergasted and sputtering, and was swept up by a team of other newer officers, all talking at once far too loud to have heard what he'd slyly called his partner. Judy gripped her arm tightly, large foot thumping the ground as she fought the urge to charge after him. Whether to smack or kiss him was a mystery better left unsolved though that gritted against her nature.

She loved and hated being called by her married name and he knew that. Loved because she had managed to find and marry the love of her life and take his last name in a crazy time. Hated because the fact that she'd legally changed her name, been issued a new social security card and was currently waiting on a replacement driver's licence and bank cards was buried further down than even her wedding ring. No one could ever know she was Judy Wilde and that fact did something to her insides that set her to panting.

"O-M-Goodness, how do you and Nick manage that every morning?"

The bunny was pulled from her smothering turn of thoughts by her second favorite coworker -after Nick- and she turned to Benjamin Clawhauser with an impish smile that she practiced in the mirror when her husband was asleep. With one powerful pump of her legs she was up on the chubby cheetah's desk, chuckling a friendly greeting as he handed her a fourth of a donut like he did most mornings.

"I've told you, Ben, my place is on the way to work from Nick's. It's like he picks me up on the way."

"But every morning?" Zootopia's first precinct dispatch worker prodded, licking glaze off his large paw pads, tail flicking happily behind his chair. "Come on, Judy. Wilfard and Grizzoli live together and even they don't show up for their shifts at the exact same time."

"Probably because they work different shifts."

Ben pulled up short at this, kind face scrunched in thought as he tried to find a loophole to her reasoning and Judy just smiled. Of all their friends there in the city, Clawhauser was the one she wished the most could know about her and Nick. Could have been at their wedding. They hadn't even told Finnick because Nick couldn't be positive how his former partner in crime would feel about the union and tough truths like that made the whole thing more than just a touch bitter sweet. Judy didn't want to believe that their friends and coworkers would turn on them if they knew the truth, but she also wasn't willing to risk it. Friend or not, Clawhauser was a police officer and she and Nick had broken the law. Were currently breaking the law.

"Well, either way," the cheetah finally tossed out, looking happily unbothered by being bested, "You two are about the cutest pair of partners this precinct has ever seen and I'm jelly."

Judy's practiced smile flashed again as she thanked Ben, reminded him to be careful about the cute comments, and bounded away towards the briefing room. The night shift officers were on their way out looking sleep deprived and beat up as usual, and the bunny cop narrowly missed getting stepped on by Trumpet. The pachyderm dropped a bleary apology before covering a yawn with his trunk and trudging away and Judy thought, not for the first time, that she was glad neither she nor Nick had been given night duty.

In the briefing room it was the usual cacophony of morning noise, the larger mammals of the precinct howling their greetings to each other; sometimes literally. At the front, Chief Bogo was hunched over a clipboard wearing the class 'I'm Just Going to Wait til It's Quiet' look that only ever allowed the chaos to continue until he lost his patience and shouted at all of them to sit down and shut up. Nick was in their usual seat, leaned over the back to talk to Jackson and Delgato. Judy hopped up beside him, but then turned to talk to Francine across the aisle. Neither of them acknowledged when Nick's tail came to rest against her back.

"Alright, sit down and shut up!"

The chief's daily declaration was met with the usual quick quip from Nick which earned him a heated glare from the buffalo, but not much else. This was who Nicholas was at work. The wise-cracking, smart mouth that got under the chief's skin, but did good work when he put his mind to it. The other officers had warmed up to him far quicker than they had to Judy and often shot him sarcastic apologies about being partnered with the teacher's pet. Because that's who Judy was at work. The by-the-book, know it all who would argue you down off a pedestal so she could take your place atop it. She didn't sass authority, didn't shirk paperwork, and didn't have any personal relationships with anyone in a holding cell currently.

They were as different as night and day and it worked to serve their purpose beautifully. Because while everyone could see they were close, it was never as anything more than work colleagues. Polar opposites forced to work together that loved their jobs enough to put differences aside and be one of the best teams that the ZPD had ever seen. There was absolutely nothing romantic between them not just because they were a bunny and a fox, but because they were just too different.

It didn't make sense.

And they didn't want it to.

They didn't want anyone to have any room to suspect that the reason Judy constantly smelled of fox was from anything other than the fact she had to share a cruiser with Nick all day. They didn't want anyone to figure out that the only reason Nick hadn't begged for a new partner right off the bat wasn't because he merely felt he'd be able to push Judy around. They didn't want anyone to know they liked each other. Loved each other.

As it was, Nick had already expressed how nervous Clawhauser's flirty game of cat and mouse with the truth made him, but Judy insisted she could handle the dispatch worker if it came to that. As much as she wanted for Clawhauser to know the truth -for ANYONE to know the truth- she wasn't going to put everything she and her husband had built on the line. It had been her idea that they lean into the natural tropes of their personalities; playing themselves as opposites in the workplace. It was just another mask, another wall, another lie she had built around them. To protect them.

"Do you ever quit?" she scoffed with a roll of her eyes as she turned to face the chief more fully. Beside her, her partner huffed a short laugh and threw a comment over his shoulder about her needing to lighten up a bit. The other predators in the room laughed.

"Don't make me repeat myself."

The chief's grumbled order brought an end to their little scene for the morning. From the corner of her eye, Judy noticed her fox scratch idly at a spot on his chest just left of his badge which he had pinned on at some point outside of her presence. A random tinge to anyone else, but she knew he had just tapped his wedding band and brushed her elbow briefly against his on the table to let him know the feeling was mutual. They all settled down to be debriefed on the goings on of the night shift and be given their own assignments for the day.

Chief Bogo made it clear in no uncertain terms that just because they all seemed to have formed good relationships with their partners -Nick and Judy let out orchestrated scoffs at that- did not mean they were part of some romantic buddy-cop sitcom. He still expected clear reports, clean takedowns, and to have more casefiles closed on his desk at the end of the day than open. The whole room echoed that they understood. He also introduced a new hire, a sheep seated near the back named Fairchild, before throwing out names and assignments rapid fire.

Nick and Judy were the last to get their casework, but it was the same folder they'd been tossed the day before. Flash's picture slid out onto the table, Nick barely catching it before it slipped off, and Bogo let them know that the former DMV worker had recanted his story during the night and given up a list of names. A list of names that had taken all night for him to recite, but by no means should take them all day to track down.

"Aye aye, Chief," Nick saluted sarcastically, letting the snick of the door behind them let him know when his boss had gone. Judy was up on the table looking down at the list. It wasn't long. The most time consuming part would be searching them up in the system to find addresses and such. Assuming none of them were aliases.

"I'll take the top, you take the bottom?" Judy asked, already working to carefully crease the paper so it could be torn in half. Nick hummed in the comfort of a supposedly empty room.

"Since when do you like being on top?" he murmured playfully, roguish smile only getting wider when his wife turned to him with wide eyes and flushed cheeks. She huffed in the face of his laughter and slapped his half of the list to his chest, paw pushing down briefly on his hidden ring. If they were home she'd have followed that touch closer into a kiss, but as it were they couldn't risk that here. She leaned harder on his chest and gave him a coy smile that promised retribution later.

"Just get to work, Slick," she grouched good naturedly, turning to hop off the table when she froze.

It was the sheep seated near the back. Fairchild. He'd been assigned parking duty for the day and Judy could have sworn he left, but there he sat, watching them. He was so still even her sensitive ears hadn't picked up his presence. He was frowning at them. She could tell from the way her husband's ears flattened back against his skull that he hadn't known Fairchild was there either; that he wouldn't have made that lude comment if he had.

Nick got his cool back first, throwing a careless smirk the male's way. Judy could see how it stretched forcefully over his canines. He grabbed her by the wrist, casefile under his arm as he marched them out of the room, wishing the new guy good luck on his first day and then spirited them off to their shared cubicle. He dropped her hand as if it had burned him as soon as they were clear, but it was too late.

Fairchild had seen them.


	3. Chapter 3

For an entire week following the incident with Fairchild, Judy was a mess whenever they were granted a moment alone. Nothing her husband said in the quiet hours of the night did anything to soothe her trepidations. Convinced they would be dragged into the streets and publicly shamed at any moment, she spent most of her free time crying, sobs hiccuping and grating out of her throat until she had to claim severe cold as an explanation for her ruined voice. In addition, her eyes and cheeks were constantly irritated with the overabundance of salt water present and on the worst days it looked as if her magenta irises had begun to bleed out into the surrounding white. While Judy had never been a particularly vain hare, even she could admit she was looking a touch bit rough.

Nick was better, but only just. A knot had formed in his stomach so tight and heavy that it left little room for most meals and the sour smell of bile followed him around half the day after their lunch break during which he was guaranteed to end up vomiting in some random trash bin along their route. As such he'd taken to nibbling very slowly on things he figured would be easier coming up. The irony that carrots was on the top of that list was lost on both Nick and his bride. Helena had sworn her son was looking gaunt when she'd stopped by earlier in the week, but Nick told the older vixen she was simply imagining ailments as an excuse to visit more often.

They didn't want to worry her with the truth.

Likewise, when the Hopps had made their biweekly call, the young couple blamed bleary eyes and downtrodden tones on an unfortunately long shift. Judy in particular had spun an especially convincing tale about having to help a new recruit refile nearly thirty cases after noticing a common error the imaginary buck had made throughout which left her parents beaming proudly. Bonnie Hopps praised her daughter for going above and beyond, but also reminded her to take care of herself and to not forget her new wifely duties. Judith had just smiled lovingly down at the live feed and held the phone closer as if the glow off the screen could warm her insides. When the call ended she had cried some more and Nick had held her until they both fell into a fitful sleep.

Each day at work was only a further testament to just how wired both mammals had become as Judy threw them headlong into the facade she'd created, no longer playing the parts of a pair of playfully begrudging partners, but instead switching the script to something bordering on hostile. Outside of walking a beat together they rarely interacted and when they did they ensured it was with the air of two creatures who could barely stand to tolerate each other for the length of one shift. They no longer arrived together, Nick hanging back at the apartment for an extra ten minutes once the bunny had left ensuring he'd need to catch a later train, and in the briefing room Judy had found her own seat near the back painfully close to Fairchild who never again caught himself alone in a room with the pair.

The change in their dynamic, oddly enough, seemed to make the precinct as a whole a little less bright. The officers that normally worked alongside the couple watched the divide between them grow wider with a sad resignation, a few dropping hints that whatever was eating them, they could work it out as a team. Francine had moved her seat to join Judy near the back of the briefing room every morning, something about the bunny sitting alone not feeling right in her trunk. Jackson and Delgato had moved forward a row, barring Nick on either side so that the fox had no free space to glance back over his shoulder at his red eyed wife who only spared her elephant coworker the most painful of smiles on any given day.

It had been a rough week.

"Hopps, get in here."

And it wasn't getting any better Judy realized as she peeled off her set path to approach Bogo who was leaning out of his office door as if he'd just spotted her through the window and decided to get up and catch her. He stepped aside to let the hare in and was back behind his desk by the time she'd hopped into the seat opposite. There were casefiles all over his desk and when he sat down with a large huff the cluttered surface shook and papers scampered out of his way as if sensing his poor mood. Judy blinked up at him, eyes sore.

"What's going on with you and Wilde?"

That Judy didn't immediately fold like a cheap suit and continue her crying session from the previous night let the bunny believe that just maybe she still deserved to wear the badge pinned to her breast. She feigned confusion, squinting in a way that honestly hurt at her boss and tossing her head to the side so that her ears hung over her shoulder. Nick said the pose played into the 'dumb bunny' stereotype, but it served its purpose most days.

Unable to do anything about her voice, she rasped a furtive, "What do you mean?"

The buffalo looked years beyond put out and sighed through his nostrils before, in a clipped and agitated tone, starting to list all of the things that he meant. Short of his lowered volume it felt very much like a dressing down as he described in detail how she and the fox in question had been off their usual game all week. How they quarreled more than usual in their cubicle, the harsh dissonance of it only being cut with bouts of stony silence. How they avoided being in any room together for too long. To the point where it had become an inconvenience to their colleagues working in places like the records room or the armory who had to skirt around the pair lest they be caught in a firefight of harsh remarks and deathly glances.

They were disrupting the workflow of the Zootopia Police Department.

Why couldn't they just get along?

"You and Wilde have always been close since before he was a cadet," the chief finally concluded, leaned far back in his seat to suss up his one and only bunny cop, "What's gotten into you two lately?"

"I don't know what you mean, sir," Judy denied, hyperfocused on the buffalo's left ear as she recalled Fairchild frowning at them from the back of the briefing room. A shiver ran down her hind quarters and beneath the chain that held her wedding band her neck began to sweat. "Nick and I aren't any more or less close than anyone else on the team."

"Oh, stow it, Hopps, I know you two are friends!"

Bogo's hoof came down on the desktop with such a clammer that Judy actually flinched, eyes falling shut as she fought to maintain her composure. She was used it; bigger animals trying to intimidate her into cooperating with their expectations. And she could tell she was letting her chief down by being so intentionally obtuse, but under no circumstances could she let him get even a hint of the truth out of her. Bogo didn't like Nick, never had, and the entire department knew he wasn't Judy's biggest fan either. Couple that with the fact they had knowingly broken one of Zootopia's oldest and strictest laws and she had not even a sliver of hope for them.

So the bunny merely folded her paws before her, opened her eyes once she was sure they would not water, and puckered her brow at her commanding officer. Bogo, who seemed to have expected her to break at his harmless display of strength, huffed again. They both knew there was nothing he could do to her. Short of perhaps getting under some mammals' skin, causing some unneeded worry, Judy and Nick had done nothing wrong by office standards. There was no rule in the handbook issued to them at academy that said they had to get along or even really interact politely with their partners outside of what was necessary. The bunny and fox still closed every case they opened and their paperwork was flawless; they weren't foolish enough to let their little farse start to actually affect their work.

The chief's hooves were tied and that's how Judy needed them to stay.

Still, some of the aggressive authority he wore in front of his officers slipped just a touch and he frowned down at her. "Hopps," he tried again, much lower this time; much gentler. Judy steeled herself. "Whatever it is...you can talk to someone."

Not to him necessarily, but to someone.

Judy nodded benignly, still maintaining the distant gaze of someone trapped in a conversation they really didn't want to be in. Someone who didn't even understand how the conversation was meant to pertain to them in the first place. Bogo's eyes searched the rabbit's face before realizing whatever she was hiding was too far below the surface as well as too far below his pay grade to trouble himself with. With a wave of his hoof she was dismissed, an order tossed at her back to keep her spats with the fox contained to their cubicle. When Judy shut his office door behind herself she realized her paws were shaking and clenched them into tight fists before heading in the direction of her husband. She just wanted to be in his presence.

The vulpine was leant over his desk, face calm and collected as he typed up some final notes. His emerald eyes flicked up when Judy entered the confined space of their cubicle, but they fell back to his keyboard just as quickly. They hadn't kicked up any imaginary arguments today and so were allowed to just be together in silence. The bunny eased herself up into her chair, revolving until she had her back to her partner, the screensaver of her desktop glaring out at her. It was a picture of Zootopia at night, the lights of the city reflecting back and forth off the tall buildings until they created an ethereal glow all around the skyline. It was an old photo, one Judy had seen in her adolescence and fixated over during long, grueling days of school and academy when other animals kept telling her to just quit already. She'd lay up at night, the picture acting as her cell background at that point, and dream about the day she could finally prove them all wrong.

Her new cell background was the picture from her and Nick's wedding day. She never brought her phone out in public anymore.

"This is impossible," she noted evenly to her computer, straightening her back while moving to open up the system browser, "Every day I feel like I'm one step closer to losing my mind."

"Hey now." Nick's words were nearly lost over the natural din of the bullpen, but his wife's sensitive ears picked up the playful lilt of his voice there behind her, "You didn't wake up crying this morning. That shows real improvement."

Judith felt the nearly foreign impulse to smile and expressed it with a breathy exhale before refocusing on her work and letting silence lap over them once more. Some days, when everyone else was occupied with some emergency or another and the office was especially noisy, the couple would talk lowly amongst themselves. Express affections in a coded whisper and converse vaguely of plans to come. They remained back to back throughout these moments, speaking their truths into the void of the browser. Anyone that peaked in or passed by would just see two police officers hard at work, likely mumbling over some case or another.

On that day, the Friday after Fairchild, they spoke about how the sheep had yet to approach either of them; perhaps never would. They speculated on what he may have seen or heard or assumed and tried to make guesses about what he may want for his silence. Considering his silence was for sale. Nicholas thought they should just continue as normal and not play the rookie's game, whatever it may be. Judith believed they should be proactive; get to him before he could get to them. It was a roundabout sort of conversation that was difficult to have when other pairs of sensitive ears may be listening, but eventually they managed to agree that they just had to keep playing aloof and deal with whatever happened as it happened.

"We may want to ease up on the whole enemies angle," Officer Hopps observed some time later when she and her partner had both risen to go for lunch. Nick's bag from home, stuffed full of carrots and blueberries his mother-in-law had mailed him, hung from the free paw not resting on his utility belt. "Bogo called me into his office this morning to say we're being real pains in the neck."

"He got you too, eh?"

Officer Wilde maintained a devil may care attitude as he recounted how he too had been pulled aside and sneakily reprimanded within an inch of his life that same day. According to him, the chief had been even more brisk and irate than he'd been with the rabbit and the tailend of the conversation did not include a glimpse into a slightly softer side of Bogo, but instead a growling command to stop upsetting the bunny and do whatever he could to fix this mess. Not that the buffalo had known what the mess was, but still, Wilde needed to fix it.

"I mean, what does he want from me? If I could divorce you I would."

Nick's sly comment wasn't uttered until they were a good six yards out the precinct's front doors headed towards The Green Horn, the safety net of two feet wedged between then. Judy let the smile she had felt coming on earlier piggyback this new one and shot her husband a beguiling sort of look that left him looking and feeling smug. The week had not been great, but the day showed promise. Perhaps they had overcorrected in their attempts to remain undiscovered, but it had worked nonetheless. If acquaintances of the two didn't believe they could foster a romantic relationship before, they found the idea almost laughable now.

Away from their coworkers they were able to round back to how Fairchild did not appear interested in them or their affairs in the least. They bounced ideas back and forth and over pedestrians about how perhaps the sheep was just ill tempered about being a meter maid. Maybe he hadn't actually seen or heard anything and instead just suffered from a resting snitch face. Any time he'd had to interact with the fox or bunny since, the conversation hadn't been laced with ill intent or malice. He seemed indifferent while the pair themselves had been coming off as manic and bizarre. They really had to tone it down.

"I don't think he knows," Nick threw down his final opinion on the matter along with a healthy tip for Cleo who waved her favorite pair of officers off with a girlish giggle and strong armed promise for them to stop by more often. "We should just put it behind us and be more careful from now on."

"Maybe you're right," Judy conceded, her vente wheatgrass drink cradled between her paws, condensation dripping down the sides and making her fingers tingle. She took a sip and it was a soothing balm over her cried raw throat. "I just need to calm down."

"That's the spirit, Carrots," her husband enthused, tapping his own drink against hers in a show of camaraderie that would have made any of their coworkers give a great sigh of relief after the week they'd all been put through.

The two officers finished out their lunch break in relative peace after that, chatting idly of all the bridges they needed to mend in the wake of this near catastrophe. Judy promptly sloshed a healthy helping of wheatgrass into Nick's lap when he suggested blaming it all on her heat cycle, and they laughed more freely than they had in days. A wet spot on his work pants that would definitely draw some jibes, Nick held out his lunch bag so that his wife could fish out some blueberries.

They'd overreacted.

Fairchild wasn't out to get them.

When they returned to their shift it was with the playful, but still professional rapport they had built up during the nighthowlers case and everyone in the ZPD seemed to take note. Behind the front desk Clawhauser commented on there no longer being trouble in paradise and Bogo gave the two an approving nod when he passed their cubicle to find them bickering in the heatless manner of the weeks prior. By the end of the day, everyone was smiling again. The bunny and the fox left separately -a precaution they'd agreed should remain from now on- but met up at their cozy apartment to fawn and linger over one another.

They went into their weekend hopeful and by Saturday night Nick's stomach had settled and Judy's voice was back to its smooth mezzo. They visited Nick's mother in downtown and let her talk their ears off about where exactly she believed would be the best place for them to buy a house. Nick still insisted he could build them one to the females' amusement. Sunday morning they lazed in bed for hours, regaling each other with stories from before they met and memorizing how the sunlight reflected off each others eyes. Sunday night their door was kicked in by the Zootopia Police Department.


	4. Chapter 4

When Judy was younger, the day she'd gotten into her scrape with Gideon Grey, her mother had tried to explain and instill the idea of self preservation to her. The sight of one of her brood coming home bloodied had sent the older hare into a tizzy the likes of which their burrow had seen rarely before and even more rarely since. A rag soaked in alcohol pressed to her daughter's cheek, Bonnie Hopps bemoaned the fact that the young bunny seemed to have been born with no flight response as far as she could tell. For if she had, Bonnie reasoned, no way would she have tried to go toe to toe with a fox of all creatures earning herself a trio of pink scars down her pretty face.

Mood not at all dampened by the events of the day, or her mother's frantic fussing, Judy had asked what a flight response was, question punctuated with hiss as her mother swiped at her cheek again. With a soothing kiss and an apology, Bonnie had explained to her 276th child that a flight response was the natural instinct within animals, particularly prey, to flee a dangerous situation. It started in the brain and spread throughout the body as a twitching nose, sweaty paws, racing heart, and eventually a logical desire to run away from whatever was frightening them.

Judy had thought of her friends who'd run off a safe distance as soon as Gideon grew aggressive and about how it had never entered her mind to do the same. All she had been worried about was restoring fairness to the situation and getting Sharla's tickets back. Her heart had raced, but with a need to stand up to the bully, to fight back when he began trying to cow and intimidate her. The kit had asked her mother what that feeling could be.

"Well, that's a fight response, but bunnies don't have that, Judy."

Judy had known then that her mother was wrong, but she hadn't known how to express so at the tender age of nine. Because obviously bunnies did have a fight response if it could be found in Judy even if not the other nearly 300 members of her family. She'd continued through her adolescence avoiding Gideon Grey, but not conflict; not fear. When something stuck in her craw she spoke up even if it sometimes meant a fight. The things that scared her, that made her want to run away, were few and far between, but when they popped up she'd think of what her mother had said all those years ago and ponder how it was that she seemed to have been stuck with both a fight and a flight response.

It wasn't until academy that she'd learned ALL mammals were equipped with the fight or flight instinct and that what made one animal want to turn tail and run may cause another to puff up defensively in preparation for a brawl. It was woven into all their DNA from a time before civility reigned and when a lonely beast of prey in the night may have to decide between abandoning their nesting ground to a bigger, scarier predator, or clashing to defend their rightful spot. Of course when Judy had called and told her mother all of this, Bonnie brushed it away as big city ideas that had no real merit.

All prey had a flight response and all predators had a fight response, that was just the way the world worked.

At the tender age of 24 Judy had had all the tools she needed to attempt to talk her mother out of this backwoods way of thinking, but she'd let it be. Her parents lived in a simple town with simple ideas and probably hadn't had to fight for or about anything in a very long time. They didn't need a fight response like Judy did. She'd known then that she was going to have to face a lot of battles if she was ever going to make her dreams a reality; running from them just wouldn't cut it. She'd finished at the top of her class because she'd refused to flee from the challenges. She'd printed over 200 tickets on her first day at the ZPD and weaseled her way into the missing mammals case because she was willing to fight to prove herself as more than a token bunny.

Once she'd met Nick she'd had to fight a lot too. Fight to get the fox to help her. Fight to make him open up after 32 years of burying everything deep down where no one could ever see. Fight to keep them both alive in the face of all manner of scenarios that wanted to see them dead. And when she'd made the biggest mistake of her life and pinned the savage attacks on predator biology, she'd had to fight to win Nick back. Fight her own pride while admitting she had been a truly dumb bunny because she just couldn't imagine a world where she ever fled from Nicholas Wilde again. She didn't want to.

She'd fought against Nick and for Nick.

She'd fought to be with Nick.

And the fight was far from over.

It was Sunday night and the couple was fast asleep lain in the safety of each other's arms. The moonlight spilling in through their bedroom window illuminated a scene of peace and domesticity. In the center of a their queen sized bed Nicholas was sprawled on his back, limbs akimbo and chest bare -minus his wedding band on its chain- as he breathed deeply in the pattern of sleep. He had on a pair of gray boxers, but the rest of his clothing had been peeled off in the natural heat of Sahara Square in June and formed a messy pile off the edge of the bed. His wife was thrown across his chest, his only blanketing, and she snuffled sleepy noises into the juncture between his neck and shoulder.

Judy wore one of Nick's old police academy t-shirts as pajamas, the navy blue looking almost black at 2am. She had on a pair of boyshort underwear as well, but the shirt fell nearly to her knees nixing the need for bottoms at all had she been up and walking around. One of her arms hung limply onto the mattress while the other curled over Nick's chest so she could stroke his fur while she dreamed of sweet things. Her legs were hitched up so that she was nearly straddling the fox and her precarious position was held stable by one of her husband's paws hugged tightly to her lower back.

They had spent nearly the entire day like that, laughing and loving each other. They'd rarely gotten out of bed but to relieve themselves and refuel between bouts of one of their favorite activities to get up to together. Neither of them had work the next day and so they'd stayed up later than usual just talking about the future. Judy still wanted a house and Nick still wanted to build it and did they think they were going to have kits? Did they want to? Were they even physically able? What would the offspring of a bunny and a fox even look like?

"They'd have your ears," Nick had said, delivering a gentle nip to the hare's left one that left her shivering for more, "Definitely."

"Well, they'd probably get your bushy tail," she'd responded, smiling disarmingly before pouncing on him once more.

It had been an amazing day that faded into an amazing night and as they'd drifted off, both dropping quiet affirmations of love, it had been with the individual belief that they could not have been happier. They both dreamed, pressed tightly together, about a house somewhere with little hybrid fox-bunnies running around that answered to the names they'd discussed as the hour had drew late. Peggy, Donald, and Sidney Wilde would grow up in a loving home smack dab in the middle of the most exciting city in the world. Where anybody could be anything.

Fast asleep, Nick heaved a deep rumble of a sigh low down in his chest and Judy huffed a reply.

And then Officer Trumpet of the Zootopia Police Department kicked down their front door.

The booming sound of it getting thrown off its hinges and into the little apartment woke both the bunny and the fox. They sat up with frightened gasps, Nick immediately wrapping his arms around Judy who had stood up on the mattress, ready to face whatever came through their bedroom standing. What came through was the elephant responsible for the racket, tranq gun already drawn and aimed beneath a flash light that blinded the couple. Behind him stormed in three more officers off the night shift, all with weapons and flashlights drawn.

"Get out!"

Krumpanski, the first to enter the room behind Trumpet, snarled the order while reaching forward to seize Nick by the elbow. Both he and his wife shouted startled protests as he was dragged off the bed, away from Judy, and tossed to the ground. Once there, the rhino stepped forward and wrenched the fox's arms behind his back, handcuffs already out and ready as Judy made to lunge for him.

"Nick!"

"Freeze, Hopps!"

Trumpet drew her attention back to the situation at large and Judy looked up to find the pachyderm had his gun trained directly on her. She backtracked only slightly, to the other edge of the mattress, but kept Nick in her sights, her heart thundering out of control. Her eyes were still adjusting to being awoken at this hour when it was meant to be pitch black and she found blinking under all the flashlight beams made spots dance in her vision. Still practically in their doorway, Johnson and Andersen were scanning the room as if expecting something to jump out, but when they realized it was all clear and once Nick was fully cuffed they stepped out of the way to reveal the last member of their team.

"Chief Bogo?"

"What're you doing in bed with her, Wilde?" The appearance of their commanding officer had thrown both Judy and Nick for a loop and when the fox didn't answer immediately Krupanski gave his arm a painful twist that had Judy begging him to stop. Just stop. "Answer me! What's the meaning of this?"

So hard. They had tried so hard to make sure they weren't found out and as Nick knelt there on his own bedroom floor, head held down at a degrading angle, he felt it was all for not. Chest heaving, the fox could barely raise his eyes to look at his boss let alone his wife and he knew in his heart they were ruined. They would never get to live through that future they'd discussed. He would never build Judy a house. They were going to lose everything. He couldn't stand to see the deed done by his own admission and so just shook his head at Bogo's question. The chain holding his wedding ring swung slowly back and forth beneath his face.

The buffalo snorted derisively, turning to his other officer who had lowered herself to her knees there on the bed, eyes trained on her partner. Unbeknownst to her, Judy was having very similar thoughts to her husband, but she was also suddenly thrown back to that day when she was nine. When she'd had a cut face and worried mother to deal with and the assuredness only held by children that she was more than just a flight response. That her racing heart and twitching nose in the face of a bigger, scarier animal was not the need to flee but the need to fight. The rabbit looked up at her chief and knew this was her chance.

She could lie right then and there about everything. Say that she and Nick were just friends, or more believably, just sleeping together. She could turn what they had into something cheap and still frowned upon, but not necessarily illegal. There were no laws about sexual relationships between predators and prey; just the social expectations that they would be kept behind closed doors and not start edging into anything more serious. Judy knew this and she could tell Bogo did as well and was hoping she'd give them all this out. He was glaring at the bunny, but it was the harsh look of someone dealing with a betrayal that hurt them, not someone who was being presented a situation that truly drove them to fury. Bogo wanted Judy to lie, but she couldn't. Wouldn't.

She'd fought against Nick and for Nick.

She'd fought to be with Nick.

And the fight was far from over.

Breathing shakily, Judy looked her boss square in the eye with her chin raised and stated clearly, "I'm his wife."

She aimed over her shoulder to the far wall. Johnson lifted his flashlight to follow the gesture and they all turned to see the marriage certificate that hung there, a photo shoved into the edge of the frame in front of the glass. Still with no weapon or cuffs drawn, Bogo entered the room fully and approached the document. Past Nick on the floor and around Judy on the bed he came to stand before it, squinting in at the sloping print and official seal of the Commonwealth of Bunnyburrow reflecting the torch light back at him. The buffalo kept his back to the room while he closed his eyes and heaved a forlorn sigh.

"That's no good here."

With a snap of his hoof, the chief of police signaled for the arrest to continue and the Wildes were read their rights. Judy felt a hiccuping cry crawling up her chest as her arms were pulled behind her back and Andersen secured her cuffs while Johnson told her she had the right to remain silent. Off the edge of the bed, Nick was dragged to his feet and Trumpet informed him anything he said could be used against him in a court of law as Krumpanski yanked a muzzle over the fox's snout. When Judy was turned around and saw the monstrous thing on her husband's face she began to cry in earnest, twisting around to look pleadingly up at Bogo who had yanked their marriage certificate and photo off the wall. The elephant and rhino shoved Nick out of the room none too gently, informing him of his right to an attorney and to be issued one should he not be able to afford it himself. When the lion and polar bear moved to remove Judith, Bogo stopped them, arms folded in front of his chest, certificate and photo nearly crushed in his grasp.

"Do you understand these rights that have been read to you?" he asked, voice cool and distant. The rabbit choked back a sob, but nodded, chin quivering as tears dripped off it.

"Yes."

"With these rights in mind...do you wish to speak to me?"

Another chance.

Another out.

Another road away from Nick.

"No."

Bogo looked as if he couldn't have been more disappointed in the bunny if she'd turned in her badge right then and there. He pulled his eyes off her, hyperfocused suddenly on the bed where she and Nick had just been dreaming peacefully, and waved them off. Andersen and Johnson each rested a paw on one of her shoulders, steering her away from the scene of her crimes with gentle pressure. As they passed through the living room and dining area Judy made a mental goodbye to this place where she had made some of the best memories of her young life. In this tiny apartment she'd built a life with her fox and now that was all over and Nick was already gone from the place. She cried harder as she passed through her ruined from doorway for what would probably be the last time.

Maybe the other officers talked to her then. Maybe they just let her be. She wouldn't remember. All she would remember was how unusually cool the night felt when they made it out onto the street, a breeze dancing across her bare legs and wet face that made her shiver. How the three cruisers parked outside had their sirens off, but lights flashing blue and red which had drawn a small crowd of nocturnal animals that watched in confused interest as a bunny was placed in the backseat of a police car. If Judy twisted and strained she could see Nick in one of the other cruisers, muzzled face turned down into his lap looking lost.

When chief Bogo finally exited the building he lowered himself into the final cop car. He was driving alone. He sat with his hooves on the wheel and staring into the distance for a long moment before blaring his siren just once. A signal to move out. The cruisers pulled away from the building, lights off now, and drove into the night headed toward City Central. Judy leaned back in her seat, chest constricting painfully as she tried to quell her crying. Sahara Square passed by and eventually disappeared out the window and she watched it go along with her life with Nick.

So hard.

They had tried so hard.


End file.
